Spring Trainging CF battle brewing

by 45 Comments

Who's spending more on pitching?
Sox sign Saito

Lost in the hoopla of the last week was a very brief note at the end of a Newsday article. The Yankees are going to have Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner fight it out for the center field job during Spring Training. Interestingly, this news seems to confirm that Johnny Damon and Nick Swisher probably won’t be in the mix for that job if all things go according to plan. Melky, by the way, had x-rays after getting hit by a Daniel Cabrera pitch on Thursday. They came back negative.

Who's spending more on pitching?
Sox sign Saito
  • thisisthedavid

    I m for it. Melky holds his own as far as his contract goes. And I like Gardner Alot.

  • http://www.stilettosetsports.com Mike

    I feel exactly the same way, I hope Melky has a spot in the outfield this year.

  • Paulie

    I hope Melky and Gardner platoon center and we keep all of our outfielders including Nady and Swisher because you can never have enough of anything.

  • http://nyfaninboston.blogspot.com/ Manimal

    Where did Melky get hurt?

    • A.D.

      HBP in the winter leagues

      • http://nyfaninboston.blogspot.com/ Manimal

        no I meant like where on his body.

        • Colombo

          right elbow, just above the joint…D.Cabrera busted him up…

  • A.D.

    Hopefully Gardner puts up a spring like last year and wins it. But i like the platoon

  • The Evil Empire

    Someone knows Melky’s stats for the winter league?

    • Andy In Sunny Daytona

      Funny you should ask, this is a repost from the other day that I wrote…..

      Melky actually has been playing really good. Between the combined regular season and playoffs his line is.
      41-123, .331/.405/.436/.841 with 16 rbi, 10 doubles, 24 runs, 1 hr, 14 bb, 15 k, 3 sb and 3 outfield assists.

      I think its too early to call it a career for Melky. If you want homegrown talent to win, you have to have patience. Not every player is Derek Jeter.

  • ortforshort

    Melky and Gardner in center. Guarantees an automatic out in the nine hole this year.

    • rbizzler

      Nothing wrong with letting them fight it out and see if they can produce. If not, the Cammy rental should still be available if the Brewers aren’t competitive.

    • steve (different one)

      wah!! my team cleaned up this offseason and now i have nothing left to complain about!

  • GG

    Gardner will take 50 sb’s if he gets enough pt…is AJax getting called up in ’09?

    • 27 this year

      probably not, at most Sept callup. Another question, is he on the 40 man because I don’t think so, so it probably makes sense to wait till spring of ’10 and see and try not to add him before he is ready because he is really raw.

      • http://twitter.com/OldRanger Old Ranger

        No he isn’t on the 40 man, and yes…Sept. call-ups is the soonest.

  • http://nyfaninboston.blogspot.com/ Manimal

    Call me crazy, but if in fact we do trade swisher, Would Nomar make sense for a bench role?

  • http://asportsaddictneedsdivineintervention.blogspot.com/ E-ROC

    C’mon Brett Gardner!

    • toad

      I think Gardner is very promising.

      His problem at the plate last year was too many strikeouts. He cut those down in the second half and raised his average considerably. If he can improve on that some more he can be a very solid offensive contributor.

  • pounder

    Aaron Rowan!!!!!!!

    • Jack

      Ha! Good one.

    • GG

      d

  • paulie
  • GG

    sawx sign saito?? jesus they are just piling on signings

  • AndrewYF

    No Red Sox fan can complain about injuries ruining their season in 2009.

    I can’t wait for these ‘low-risk’ moves to blow up in their faces when they actually have to rely on these guys. It’s not depth when they can’t play.

    • Jay CT

      This is a nice low risk move. I was pulling for the Yanks to get Saito. Sick numbers but old and coming off major injury

      • AndrewYF

        I wasn’t. Saito was simply awful down the stretch last year. I’d rather the Yankees be experimentin’ with guys who have the capacity to break out and dominate, not guys who may get back to their dominating selves if and only if 1) age doesn’t catch up with them 2) injuries don’t catch up with them.

        If you give a guy a major league deal, he’s on your 25-man roster, or you cut him in ST and lose the cash that could have been spent elsewhere. The Sox now have Penny, Smoltz and Saito on their roster, and none are even likely to be healthy.

        I’d be much more scared of the Sox if they signed actually healthy major leaguers to very good deals, like Adam Dunn or Pat Burrell. So far, they seem content to believe in their own hype that they’re a 95-win team even without adding anyone. Thank god for that.

  • http://twitter.com/OldRanger Old Ranger

    Melky isn’t hurt to badly, I hope! I want the best guy out in CF.
    If I remember right, Melky plays the corners well but, Brett is much better in CF then L or R. Of course that could be because he played CF his whole life and played at R and L a few times.
    Either way we will have many at bats for all of them.

    • Ryan S.

      I think Melky was playing LF when he The Melky Catch happened (when he stole Manny’s HR in 2006).

  • GG

    Could we sign some more arms before the SOXXX take ALLLL of them PLEASE

  • The Evil Empire

    Red Sox sign Takashi Saito, man they are going all out after the whole Tex thing.
    And it also seems like L.A is losing everyone.

    • http://26ncounting.blogspot.com VO

      why dont we just calll them the god damn world champs already!

  • GG

    Also, is YFSF supposed to be a blog for fans of both teams?? checking it out for the first time in a very very long time and I never really looked at it that much at all…but it seems like its just a redsox blog

  • http://davidsyankeethoughts.blogspot.com/ david

    I believe we have to give Brett a chance to find out what he can do. If we let Damon go at the end of the year who will be our lead-off hitter. I dont know if brett will be able to dothe job but i belive we have to find out. leading off is one of the most important plsitions on the team.

  • Nigel Bangs

    whatever happened to justin christian? he’s no kind of option?

    • http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben K.

      He’s not with the Yankee organization right now. He was let go to make roster space and is currently a free agent. He’s also going to be 29 on Opening Day and isn’t that good.

  • GG

    I like him but im not as worried about JC b/c 6 roster spots are tied up between OF’s/DH. we need more arms…the sox are signing every available short term guy…nobody knows if or wants hughes joba coke ipk etc to throw even close to 200 innings so we really lack depth….It would be unreal if we could talk Moose into one more run at a ring

    • http://davidsyankeethoughts.blogspot.com/ david

      with the clubs paying as little as they are pettit will accept the offer of 10 mil and we should be able to cover the pitching staff with kids from the minors cashmans mistake was tring to push them a year to earily. there is a lot of quaility there

  • Frank B.

    Does anyone really think Nick Swisher won’t be playing CF this year (if he’s here)? Especially when Gardner’s batting .184 in the middle of of May and Melky’s not doing much better.

    Can someone tell me why Swisher is not being considered for CF? Gardner would be a perfect late inning defenseman/pinch runner…

    • http://davidsyankeethoughts.blogspot.com/ david

      after we spent so much on our pitching staff this year we would like to give them the best chance to suceed we can which means defence and there are fue places that we can improve after first base and right field

    • rbizzler

      Cash/Girardi have stated that Swish will be in the CF rotation. He isn’t being mentioned as the primary CF because CF is not his optimal defensive position. He is a much better defender at one of the corner spots.

    • steve (different one)

      Can someone tell me why Swisher is not being considered for CF?

      because he’s not that good in CF?

      do we need any other reason?

      he’s a quality corner guy but is stretched in CF.

  • YankeeBaseball

    This reminds a few years ago when Cashman said Bubba Crosby was our CF and Enrique Wilson would start at 3rd. Slappy Gardner can’t hit ML Pitching (AAAA) and SourMelky is no more than a 4th outfielder. Of course Cashman’s gonna say there’s a “competition” between the two for CF. He doesn’t want to give up leverage on the trade front…

    Get me Rowand. Kennedy, Melky and Robertson for Rowand.

    S.F. will be happy to clear Rowand’s bulbous contract and get two good prospects plus a serviceable young (backup) CF in return…

    He did well in the winter league, but I suspect that Kennedy doesn’t have the mental makeup to succeed in NY. Robertson is a good reliever but that’s one area where we have quite a surplus. With Gardner as our 4th outfielder/pinch runner, Melky is expendable. If we get Rowand, our defense is improved and of course offensively he’s far superior.

  • Brandon

    F… Rowand ! ..you have Arod, Tex and Cano for offense in CF you should only be concerned w/ defense and live by w/ that type of line up, there is no reason anyone should panick about CF when the 3/4 hitters might average 30-40 HR/120+ RBIs each.

  • Brandon

    Also getting Rowand blocks Austin Jackson and Rowand was horrific in CF for SFG.